Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education

News Digest

The Genocide Education Project to Create Rhode Island CurriculumThe Rhode Island Council for the Humanities has awarded almost $9000 to support the creation, for secondary school teachers, of a teaching kit and training workshops on the Armenian Genocide that draw on the experiences of Armenian Genocide survivors who sought asylum in Rhode Island. Read more: http://www.genocideeducation.org/pr/2011/02_01_2011.htmAuschwitz Decays, Prompting Preservation EffortAuschwitz is crumbling — the world's most powerful and important testament to Nazi Germany's crimes falling victim to age and mass tourism. Now guardians of the memorial site are waging an urgent effort to save what they can before it is too late. Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41405255Maria V. Altmann, Pursuer of Family Klimts, Dies at 94Maria V. Altmann, a Jewish refugee who in her 80s waged a successful legal battle all the way to the United States Supreme Court to force the Austrian government to return paintings by Gustav Klimt that had been seized from her family by the Nazis, died on Monday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 94. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/arts/design/09altmann.html?_r=1&hpw

Sudan Expels French Medical Aid GroupSudan has ordered a French medical aid agency out of South Darfur state, accusing the organization of supporting rebel forces and for releasing what it called false rape reports against forces loyal to the Khartoum government, according to state-run media. Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/15/sudan.aid.group/

Auschwitz Shifts From Memorializing to TeachingFor nearly 60 years, Auschwitz has told its own story, shaped in the aftermath of the Second World War. Now those in charge of passing along the legacy of this camp insist that Auschwitz needs an update. Its story needs to be retold, in a different way for a different age. Read more:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/arts/19auschwitz.html?hp

Rwanda Rebel Callixte Mbarushimana at International Criminal CourtCallixte Mbarushimana, a Rwandan rebel leader accused of "spreading terror" in Democratic Republic of Congo, has appeared before war crimes judges in The Hague. The Hutu rebel leader, yet to enter a formal plea, denies ordering his FDLR fighters to kill and rape civilians. The presence of Hutu rebel groups in DR Congo has been at the heart of years of unrest in the region. Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12307593

Congo Colonel Gets 20 Years after Rape TrialA Congolese court sentenced an army colonel to 20 years in prison Monday, convicting him of crimes against humanity in the highest-profile sexual violence case ever tried in this nation where thousands are brutally raped each year. The mobile court held in the lakeside village of Baraka marks the first time a commanding officer has been tried for such a crime. Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41700270/ns/world_news-africa/Three Guilty of Attacking Bosnian War Criminal Radislav KrsticThree Muslim prisoners have been found guilty of a revenge attack on a Bosnian war criminal in Wakefield jail. Radislav Krstic, 62, was serving a 35-year sentence in the jail for his part in the killing of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 when attacked. Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bradford-west-yorkshire-12509858

U.S. Department of State Displays Artwork by David FeinbergLife Is Struggle, made through University of Minnesota professor David Feinberg’s Voice to Vision collaborative studio project involving Holocaust and genocide survivors, has been chosen for display by the U.S. Department of State’s ART in Embassies Program. It will be displayed at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasha, Democratic Republic of Congo, during the period Spring 2011 - Fall 2013. Click here to read the full press release and the Artist’s Statement.